1. Technical Field
The invention relates to Web browsing technology. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for fast delivery of and fast rendering of Web pages on a lightweight network device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical Web page today contains not only HTML content but also, by reference to, other content elements such as graphics and external style sheets. A browser acquires the referenced content elements by spawning worker threads that retrieve the data via multiple HTTP-TCP/IP connections. This model works well for desktop systems containing large amounts of processing power and RAM. However, it is usually not feasible for mobile, lightweight, embedded devices in which processing power and RAM are much limited.
The process for proper HTML parsing, validation, and layout code is normally quite complex and requires large amount of CPU and RAM to execute. Size and manufacturing cost have been major concerns in providing embedded devices with a capacity to implement the process. Although embedded devices are getting more and more processing power and RAM, the requirements of a proper browser engine still outdistance the resources available to even the highest end of embedded devices.
High levels of CPU usage are detrimental to the preservation of battery life, which is a very important consideration for today's mobile devices. Heavy loads in HTTP communications, HTML parsing, HTML validation and layout may largely shorten the battery life.
Bandwidth usage is also a major constraint that must be considered in designing a browser model for embedded devices. Text based HTML content, although compressible, is already quite large with respect to the limited transmission speed of today's wireless networks. When image content designed for higher resolution and larger form factor display is included, one may quickly end up consuming a lot of wasted bandwidth transmitting redundant, not necessarily usable data to mobile devices.
Although various browsing technologies have been already presented in the marketplace, many of them fail to meet the tight constraints and stringent requirements of the embedded devices. Writing a cross platform code base for these devices is an even bigger challenge, given the multitude of operating systems, memory models and processors available for embedded device manufacturers.
It would be advantageous to provide a server-based browser system that offloads heavy weight components of a traditional browser to a back end server. It would further be advantageous to provide a server-based browser system that leaves a lightweight client device with a minimal task of implementing a customizable interface to display a pre-rendered representation of Web pages.